Reliance Mobile: Giving a crash course in time management

In an ad for Reliance Mobile, Leo Burnett has tried to make yet another mobile phone scheme promotion interesting, by offering viewers the best way to spend their time

Perhaps

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a movie or a date may not be the best way to pass time after all, if one goes by what executives at Reliance Communications have to say. As per the telecom major's latest offering, one can buy a Reliance Mobile handset and get a free talk time for 2000 minutes. Well, free talk time is surely not a unique property for a telecom player any more.

Agrees Nitesh Tiwari, executive creative director, Leo Burnett (the agency on the account), "Surely, this isn't the first time that free talk time is being offered to the consumer. Which is why our communication for this had to be doubly unique and yet relevant."

Leo Burnett made two words the mantra for its communication: '2000 minutes'. The creative team, particularly copywriter Vivek Rao, explored what 2000 minutes (33 hours) can mean in the lives of consumers. Thus, zeroing in on the various activities one can cram into this much time became the central creative idea.

The protagonist catches up on movies

He tries desperately to get that 'Dhoni' look

Finally, he makes use of his time on a Reliance phone

The ad opens on the shot of a guy lost in thought on how to kill time. The voiceover explains that various activities can be done with 2000 minutes on hand. One can watch 20 Hollywood movies (cut to the shot of the man in front of his television set), or perhaps, 10 Bollywood ones (the obvious insinuation being that Hindi movies are longer in duration).

Next, the boy is shown dating different women in a restaurant over a period of time, with the voiceover explaining that dating too, is an option for killing time. Or perhaps one can even try desperately to get the 'Dhoni' haircut, just to pass time. But while these options are a good way to spend time, they will cost loads of money, says the voiceover. The ad goes on to explain that one can instead simply buy a Reliance Mobile handset and enjoy up to 2000 minutes free talk time. The super concludes, 'Use Kijiye Aish Kijiye'.

"While one can do a lot of things with 2000 minutes at hand, most of these things involve spending money," explains Tiwari. "Thus, we devised this whole concept of best using 2000 minutes of your life, without having to spend a penny."

The 'Dhoni' angle was added for two reasons. For one, the cricketer's rather unique hairstyle is a rage amongst his fans. Secondly, Dhoni is also the brand ambassador for Reliance Communications. So, it was but natural to leverage his name.

Leo Burnett is also behind the 'Missed Calls' campaign for Reliance Mobile, released a while ago, "but while that was more insight focused, this one is more consumer habit driven, on the way they can spend their time."

There are two versions to this ad; one of them even has the protagonist exercising away at a gym to kill time.

Sanjay Behl, head, branding and marketing, Reliance Communications, reveals that the TG for this ad is clearly new/potential users. "Six million people join the world of mobile phones every month, and this is a significant belt for us," he says.

When asked about the similarity in propositions amongst telecom players, Behl remarks, "Well, we never use the premise, 'talk endlessly' or 'talk anything', the way our competitors do. We believe consumers know what to do with their mobile phones. So what we have tried to do in this ad is to make the mobile phone more viable to consumers than other ways of spending time."

The ad was directed by Anand Iyer of Ramesh Deo Productions over two days in Mumbai. Special elements were added into the film to portray the passage of time. For instance, the protagonist is shown in changed clothes to portray a day-change. The barber shot has a mother dragging a kid into the salon in the background, which Iyer borrowed from his own personal experiences.

According to Behl of Reliance Communications, the ad has already generated a 30-40 per cent jump in sales of handsets.